Fresh vegetables and fruits from local farms and abroad are continuously arriving in hypermarkets and other outlets in Qatar, it is learnt.
Besides, fresh items such as dairy and poultry products are arriving from Qatar as well as countries in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Australia, providing residents “with an array of options at reasonable prices”, say sources.
Speaking to Gulf Times, a source from a leading hypermarket in Qatar said cargo planes fly tonnes of fresh produce almost every day from countries such as India, Iran and Turkey.
“We have enough for residents and the growing demand for locally-produced vegetables has also prompted local farms to produce more,” he noted. “There is also a plan to bring fresh milk from India.”
The store offers a variety of vegetables from Iran such as green beans, capsicum and cucumber, while flat beans, red chilli and canary melon come from Turkey, which also supplies fresh milk and other dairy products such as laban and yogurt.
Other varieties of vegetables such as pumpkin and bottle gourd come from Oman, while garlic, turmeric, ginger and onions are imported from India along with other products.
Bangladesh supplies string beans, round eggplant and papaya.
Fruits such as apple, orange, banana, mango, plum, avocado, pear and pineapple come from different countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Brazil, Africa, Spain, Kenya, the Netherlands, Italy, Holland, India and the Philippines.
Locally-produced and organic vegetables, mostly cucumber, tomatoes, eggplant, lemons and mushrooms, are also available in nearly all stores, the sources point out.
According to the sources, a large volume of eggs comes from Qatari farms and these are being patronised by many residents.
“They find the eggs here tasty and cheaper compared to some imports, but we also get eggs from Lebanon and Oman,” he said. “The economic blockade has given residents plenty of choices now.”
In another supermarket, many of the root crops on its shelves such as sweet potato, potato, beetroot and turnip, apart from eggplant, green beans, white cabbage and white radish, were from Morocco.
An employee cited a growing demand for local produce such as tomato, capsicum, cucumber, and white and brown mushrooms.
“Customers look for these items every day and as far as I know local farms are trying to further increase their production to meet the demand,” he said.
He added that countries such as Holland, Thailand, Spain, France and the US are also continuing to export items like capsicum, lettuce, green beans, corn, jackfruit, chilli, asparagus and mango in large quantities.
Many supermarkets also have local fresh herbs and leaves such as mint, spinach, kangkong, molukhiya, dill, ruwid, red cheera and palak at reasonable prices.
Besides an array of dairy products from various countries such as Denmark and fresh and organic milk from the UK are also available.
Fresh vegetables at a supermarket.
